It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? – 27 August 2018

Hosted by Kathryn from Book Date, this is a weekly event to share what we’ve read in the past week and what we hope to read, plus whatever else comes to mind. Here is what I read the week ending 27 August 2018. To learn more about each book, just click on the book cover!

When you don’t have much else to distract you, reading occurs. I like it. I feel like I made a lot of progress among my review copies. I would love to finish July’s outstanding copies before we hit September. Can I do it? We shall see!

FINISHED SINCE THE LAST UPDATE:

I have mixed feelings about the Andrea Kleine novel. I kept waiting for answers, even suffering through pseudo-intellectual, philosophical dialogue that I personally feel is so unrealistic and pretentious. I did get some answers but not all were satisfying. I get that this is Ms. Kleine’s point, but it rankles nonetheless.

The second book in Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series more than makes up for the rash of mediocre books that I read in the last few weeks. Emily Gray is a delightful narrator, and I can only imagine the amount of fun she had bringing Alexia Tarabotti and Conall Maccon to life. I know there were scenes that had me literally laughing out loud, and this is a re-read for me. Any bad day was instantly made better by a foray into Alexia’s world.

Megan Abbott’s latest is amazing. I pretty much loved everything about it. Women in science, PMDD discussions, lack of medical research specifically for women, female rivalries – any woman working will be able to relate to at least some part of it. Plus, I had no idea where it was going to go. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. That’s what you want in a good thriller!

DID NOT FINISH:

At first, I was not going to declare Ms. Mazur’s newest novel as a DNF. The writing is so gorgeous that I was loathed to make that decision. Unfortunately, this quiet novel about two very different families coming together at the rehearsal dinner for their children’s pending wedding made me slightly ill in how she shows the true feelings of all dinner guests, the snide comments to each other about the other family, and so forth. She has a point on how awkward it is for two different families to be arbitrarily joined together because of a marriage, but I was not ready or willing to read about the awkwardness. The world is so shitty right now with everyone feeling the need to bash everyone else that the idea of reading a novel wherein there was more negative commentary directed towards strangers was more than I was willing to stomach.

It is disturbing. It is most definitely not for everyone. I liked it because I like truly depraved characters like that, but even I had to read it in fits and starts. Plus, I had some weird dreams while reading it. They were not directly connected to the book but definitely more vivid and memorable than normal.

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Disclosures

Unless specifically stated in the review, I have purchased all books reviewed. All opinions expressed are uniquely my own.

I have an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Powell's Books and IndieBound. When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, That's What She Read earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. Thank you!